Westminster parking fees threaten London jobs

Businesses in London's West End will lose more than £700m a year in profits
resulting in thousands of job losses should Westminster Council start
charging to park in the evening in Central London, a new study claims.

Under Westminster Council's plan, drivers will have to pay to park on single yellow lines from 6:30pm each day as well as on Sunday afternoons.Photo: Julian Simmonds

The move would see the area's hotels, restaurants, pubs and theatres lose £714m in profits, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR). That in turn, the study argues, would see those businesses cut just over 5,000 jobs to compensate for the lost business.

Under Westminster Council's plan, drivers will have to pay to park on single yellow lines from 6:30pm each day as well as on Sunday afternoons. Colin Barrow, the leader of the Council, has said the move is necessary to ease stifling congestion in one of the busiest parts of Britain's capital. The council has also said that the move should raise about £7m a year from drivers.

"There are serious figures and one needs to be very wary of changing the parameters for businesses at the heart of our tourism and entertainments offering," said Oliver Hogan, an economist at CEBR, whose research was commissioned by a trade group for businesses in the West End.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has called for the plan to be rethought amid concern it will dent tourism into the capital, particularly from those who drive in from elsewhere in the country.

The plan adds to anxieties that London's economy is also poised to suffer should the financial services industry cut more jobs next year as Western economies struggle to recover from the financial crisis.

Simon Thomas, who owns the Hippodrome Casino in London's Leicester Square, claimed that "it doesn't take a genius to work out that if you make it £25 more expensive to have a night out in one place, prospective customers might choose somewhere else to go."